22 JEROME CARDAN. 



side a battle was soon fought near a village called Agna- 

 dol, the Venetians were routed, and without more contest 

 driven into Venice. The campaign, therefore, was soon 

 ended. This was the victory of the Adda celebrated by 

 a triumphal entry into Milan in the eighth year of Jerome 

 Cardan's life. 



Louis XII, predecessor of King Francis I. of France, 

 was a monarch of whom it is just to speak respectfully. 

 He sought the welfare of his people. When, on the 

 occasion of this brief Venetian campaign, he found his 

 warfare so soon ended that he should not need the special 

 taxes he had levied, he remitted them, and left the money 

 in the pockets of his subjects. He detested all the arts 

 which darkened counsel by a multitude of words, and ex- 

 pressed frequently so great an aversion to the sight of a 

 lawyer's bag 1 , that had the little Jerome, when he saw the 

 king pass by under his window, known of the existence 

 of that strong point in his character, he would have spent 

 some part of his recovered health in lusty cheering. Who 

 had so full a right as little Jerome to cheer kings who 

 hated lawyers' bags ? 



The great delicacy of health which followed the child's 

 illness procured for him exemption from the task of carry- 



1 " Kien n'offense plus ma vue que la rencontre d'un procureur charge 

 de ses sacs." Words of Louis XII, quoted by Anquetil from Claude 

 Seyssel, Bishop of Marseilles, a subject who was much in the king's 

 company. 



